6. "Old Bedroom"
After a few minutes of silence, both thinking about the small but important issue in front of him and remembering a not-so-pleasant past.
'Don't send it to any of them.' Lucien finally said. 'It's more likely to generate more bad than good.'
[Understood.]
Avant fell silent soon after, while Lucien continued looking at both the forest and the moon. Shortly after, he just turned his face away and disappeared from where he was again.
*********************
Lucien appeared again in another part of the forest in the place he felt calmest when he wanted to rest his mind when thinking about unpleasant things, one might think it would be a beautiful and cozy house or if he was more opulent a large mansion or even a castle, but the place he felt most calm was not an old one made by the military, millennia ago, even before Lucien was born. He could have teleported directly to the underground bunker hidden in the forest but he also liked to do a little ritual.
Remembering the first time he had "stumbled" upon his safest hiding place millennia before and where his life as a collector and fugitive had largely ended, and his path of strength had begun. He walked slowly to the shiny steel doors on the ground with rose bushes growing around him and opened them slowly, as he did so he saw himself in the past doing something similar, but the doors were rusty, he was skeletal and running away from something. creature that wanted an easy snack, whether it was Lucien or the small, low-radiation fruits he had found.
After opening them, he slowly went down the steps, while seeing the illusion of himself falling backwards onto the musty floor and the creature ignoring him for whatever reason, perhaps it thought he had died from the fall and he couldn't help himself. to amuse the tormentor before eating it, and decided that in this case the fruits would be a better meal, ironically due to the radiation they exuded. When he fell, Lucien remembered very well having broken some ribs in the fall and he was unconscious for hours and a few more after he woke up in too much pain and hunger to get up.
Heading forward through the only entrance, Lucien walked down a long and tight corridor, made entirely of shiny, polished metal, with doors open to several other areas within the bunker that led to several android and weapons manufacturing wings, infirmaries, arsenals, plantations, rest and leisure areas, etc., things very different from the opaque and rusty metals and vacuum-sealed doors of before. He walked until he reached an anteroom large enough for 5 large sofas placed around what looked like a round table with a metal base and glass top, a dining table on the right side just in front of a fully furnished kitchen. Directly ahead there was another door that led to a triple intersection, to the left it led to the tents where Lucien had slept for centuries or millennia alone, the largest plantation area having both plantations, the most common and best known forms of plantation, hydroponic, suspended, vertical plantings, etc., placed together and complementing each other in an organic and orderly manner. The third intersection led to the area where Lucien felt most comfortable in the bunker, the control room.
Despite the fact that the anteroom before was the first "wing unlocked" by him when he arrived, and he used that place as a shelter for days until he recovered from the fall and the malnutrition he was suffering (to this day he attacks immensely anyone who thought of putting a mini vacuum pantry with non-perishable synthetic foods), the control room was the area where he felt safest with the reinforced doors and the long path between the corridors. It was also in this place that he made his "first bed" after centuries and could sleep without worrying about mutant creatures wanting to devour him, the environment, or other survivors who might also want to devour him, use him as a slave or laboratory rat.
It was also there that he could meet Avant and where his "path to success" could begin.
Having started by releasing access, there are several other areas and structures of the bunker over the centuries, the first being the communication center through which he can finally make contact with people who would not want to end him as they were "in the same boat" also releasing access on various levels of the bunkers or hidden bases that were. It was almost like a game of conquering the base by sharing your progress and bragging about it with... well what closer could you have at that time to call friends.
These were times as fun as they were dangerous, after all, some sessions had faulty drones that attacked anyone who entered, when they themselves were in those sessions, others were blocked due to earthquakes, floods, landslides, etc. And others ended up becoming nests of mutated creatures, some nests developed so much that they reached the point of forming communities of multiple types of creatures, developing social "order" and even leaders among themselves, of course these leaders were determined in bloody fights until the end. death and whoever lost would become food, just like anyone who challenged them before or after, but it was still very impressive to see, as well as to deal with... not so much.
Heading to the command room, Lucien also remembered several times he was saved in such situations by his "friends" and how many times he helped them, until eventually they all found and unlocked the warp transport and nano-genetic engineering wings. . That would merge both genetic engineering and the manufacturing and innovation of the nanobots that people had, even though many of them (including Lucien and several of his friends) had forgotten that their bodies had these microscopic machines that allowed them to recover from injuries longer." faster" and lived longer even in an environment loaded with radiation.
"Avant, release neural control and switch to analog mode, transfer all year's compiled data to central storage from terminal 00-F.Auxilian."
[Command answered, transfer initiated.... Transfer completed. Do you want to leave a backup at the transmission point.]
"I wonder why you always ask when you always know the answer I give." Luciene said a little exasperatedly.
[Protocols must be followed, in addition to the fact that it is considered basic editing among humans to ask for consent in several instances.] The AI responded.
"Basic education of ancient humans, for current humans the only one who could give or allow consent would be the one with more strength. No, I think that now these would also be ancient humans, right, since the last war chief died along with his clan a what? 500 or 700 years?" He rambled, placing one hand on his chin.
[It's been more than 6 thousand years.] Avant replied.
"That's right, haha, I think I'm getting old and forgetful with age." Lucien said with a very jovial smile on her 27-year-old face, who didn't look anywhere near as old as she claimed (and in fact was) to be.
[If you say so be it, now returning to the reason for coming here. It wasn't just to relive old memories right?] Avant asked.
"Obviously not, I just like coming here to calm down." He said, sitting in the large armchair in front of the huge computer that occupied the entire right wall with some smaller monitors in front. "I want you to review and verify the estimates of our visitors and help me compile a proposal to change the nomenclature of the designation components of mutated creatures." Lucien asked.
[Understood, will this be your only proposal for the meeting in 4 months?.]
"For now yes, but we'll see what happens in that time, maybe something interesting will happen like Ka'luth trying to do something with his poisonous animals again or some incursion of space pirates into the system." Lucien said with a somewhat sinister smile.
[Aren't you the one who wished for a calm world where you wouldn't have to worry about suddenly ending up dead in a horrible way?]
"Of course, and I still worry about it, but I still can't help feeling how annoyingly calm things have been these past millennia." Lucien said, resting her head on the chair and letting her body sink into it. "Is something interesting going to happen soon, huh Avant?" He asked in a languid tone of voice to the disembodied voice in front of the huge computer screen.
[The chances are unlikely but they always change. That's not what I always say, especially when we talk about you.] He even responded with a touch of tenderness in his robotic voice.
"It always is, and it always uses us as examples of exponential improbability." He said laughing a little. "Well, let's go with this proposal, even though there's nothing to do later, it's still a hassle that I want to ease."
[Understood then—]
*Beep-Beeep-Beeep*
A loud alarm sounded, an alarm that Lucien in millennia of life had never heard before.